Oh fer krissake

Tam reports on the  latest efforts to control armed and  dangerous domestic subversives.

  

Drive a Couple More Nails in the Wall

I can't believe that crowd let me have the minty Ruger 10-22 for $165. It has a black unwood stock, so  I can't believe how tactical I feel. 

The Marlin-Ballard in average-minus shape  brought $775, and buddy and I both passed. He was in at $750 and welcomed the overbid.

That Mossy was a nice  46 bolt, tube-feeder. Good Mossbergs are edging up;  this one brought about  $200.

Best for last:  A girl I know  caught me sleeping and snuck a 10-inch cast iron mermaid into her tucker bag for $16. It took a good deal of flattering banter, reminders of past favors, and a $20 bill, but I recouped the situation, and Miss M now sits coyly on a prominent shelf, right next to the Walker Cherub pit log. 

Boosting the lethality index

My most recent  economic development stipend  has been lying idle for weeks now, shirking its duty to circulate and stimulate.  I may fix that this afternoon, assuming the dole is enough to buy a "Marlin-Ballard  32 cal single shot rifle Pat 1861" in open auction. There is a problem. My buddy Bill probably wants it too, and we have an agreement not to bid against one another.  I don't think, though, that I ever promised not to put a reliable and quick-acting poison in his coffee. 

Sheer nonsense...

...but we're getting used to that from President Obama.

I'm having a hard time believing, however, that the world media is letting him get away with "the sheer improbability" characterization of the Normandy beachhead victory.

If the odds against success were that heavy, someone in the chain of command would have ordered  or loudly and publicly counselled the abort. Someone like Marshall, Eisenhower, Bradley, Smith, Montgomery, Ramsay, Leigh-Mallory, Devers -- y'know, all those old white guys who had to run a war without benefit of several years experience organizing neighborhoods on the south side of Chicago. 

Whatever their faults, generals and admirals  do not launch attacks on the world stage  where defeat is a sheer probability.  All who have written of Overlord from a military standpoint concede it was  very  risky (duuhhh) and casualties would be heavy. But all considered victory on the beaches and beyond quite likely.  Mr. President, may I politely challenge you to cite any source with more credibility than, say, Bill Ayers, to the effect that  the Allied Powers believed they faced sheerly improbable chances of success?

I make an issue of this, Sir, because many people tend to believe what a president says, no matter how  dense the fecal content. These things also get printed in the books, and I share with some other eccentrics a quirky little interest in keeping  our history as  tidily accurate as possible.